Wednesday, June 11, 2008

First off I am very happy that Mr. Hat is back in all his sarcastic, only-mildly-evil goodness. Hurrah for Panel 4.

I don't quite know why Panel 1 has to be an airport it seems like besides the word "airline," which could be anything, and of course the clearly marked "AIRPORT" sign, it could be anywhere. Nonetheless, I like the idea that a character always assumes they are going to a bakery. This is funny, because it is such a specific assumption and is no doubt nearly always wrong, but he still holds it.

Panel 2 is clearly false; I accidentally took a set of lock-picks on a plane recently with no consequence.

Panel 3, eh, I would complain but the 1 and 4 are good enough that I don't have the heart for it. (note: In a comment below, I speculate that "manpage" is a typo for "mainpage." I have since been informed that I am an idiot, and "manpage" is correct.)

Good work today, Randall. Don't fuck it up.

update: I was on a plane today and accidentally left my phone on THE WHOLE TIME. The plane did not crash! What the heck, airline industry? Why do we have to turn off our "mobile devices"?

Oh I don't think it's that bad....I guess the first panel is a bit rushed but that's not too bad. #2 is kind of a quirky relationship thing but also kind of not; you don't see her there and it's not Randall saying "me and my girlfriend do this," which are the ones that really bug me, the first person ones.

Panel 3 I imagine the joke is that is so ingrained in whatever nerdy programming thing he is doing that he doesn't want to stop even though it may jeopardize the safety of the flight. Also I assumed "manpage" was a typo for "mainpage" only because I've heard of those and xkcd does actually make a surprising amount of mistakes, which are usually corrected.

And Panel 4, I find those details the kind of things that make jokes better. That's just Mr. Hat's character, to do CRAZY things and put CRAZY effort into them for his own CRAZY amusement. I kinda like it.

Modern cll phones don't conflict anymore with airplane signals. Airlines just pretend they do because think how god-awful irritating it would be if everyone was talking on heir cll phone for an entire flight.

Long story short, historically, they cause MAJOR troubles. These days, all modern wiring in airplanes is very well protected, so it's hardly an issue. But they stick to consistency and history.(easiest way to see this is a real issue, stick a cellphone next to a pc speaker cable...)

Well from my experience cell phones have a much greater effect when someone is actually calling you, or they did on speakers anyway. So if no one calls you on the plane I guess you're cool, but they tell you to turn it off because someone just might call you.

What the hell is this?

Welcome. This is a website called XKCD SUCKS which is about the webcomic xkcd and why we think it sucks. My name is Carl and I used to write about it all the time, then I stopped because I went insane, and now other people write about it all the time. I forget their names. The posts still seem to be coming regularly, but many of the structural elements - like all the stuff in this lefthand pane - are a bit outdated. What can I say? Insane, etc.

I started this site because it had been clear to me for a while that xkcd is no longer a great webcomic (though it once was). Alas, many of its fans are too caught up in the faux-nerd culture that xkcd is a part of, and can't bring themselves to admit that the comic, at this point, is terrible. While I still like a new comic on occasion, I feel that more and more of them need the Iron Finger of Mockery knowingly pointed at them. This used to be called "XKCD: Overrated", but then it fell from just being overrated to being just horrible. Thus, xkcd sucks.

Here is a comic about me that Ann made. It is my favorite thing in the world.

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